Thursday 12 July 2012

Battlefront go all GW

From the Flames of War official site via the excellent Neil Shutt of Meeples and Miniatures (actually on the Facebook group). Empasis mine.
 "The final change we are making is that from the new season all the events we run with will be only allowing Battlefront miniatures to be used. This is bound to cause some debate, so let me be clear as to why we have chosen to go down this path. Joe, Gareth and our events cost a great deal of money to run: a little over a quarter of a million American dollars this year alone. And, although it seems childish to draw a line in the sand and say, “If you want to play at our events and support the FOW hobby, you should not be bringing other people’s models along,” it is absolutely that simple. Our business is a business and we want Flames Of War to grow; we intend to give it the best support we can, but this support has a cost." 
I wonder. Where have I seen that before? I already knew I disliked FoW, but this just takes the cake.

3 comments:

  1. For now this decision will only effect tournament players and as I'm not and never have been one I'm not all that bothered by their decision. But it is a shame they have decided to follow the lead of the Evil Empire. Clearly they are looking at other gaming companies business models and following their path to the dark side.

    I'll continue to play FOW, build my armies using minis from a variety of manufacturers and experiment with other rules systems. BF's petulant tantrum isn't going to change that one little bit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As I have made it fairly clear in the post that I dislike the system a great deal, it's only going to reinforce my views, too :D

      Delete
  2. [apologies again for writing so much - I can't keep it short - I should blog instead of comment :-P]
    Well, no mistaking as to how and why they do it. Reflecting on my stance on another well-known seller of plastic thingies, while they will enjoy receiving part of my disposable income for a while, I talked with the people from a nearby shop who sells their Hobby(tm) products and one guy there (he wasn't present at that moment) apparently organises games in his shop. They also have older models (as opposed to the branded store that throws everything out when it is no longer official) on the shelves.

    If I'm going to spend money on Hobby Inc., I´d rather do it through a sympathetic retailer. Admittedly the hard part is my son, he really loves the branded store because you can go there, buy stuff, sit down etc, unlike most other stores. I think I've got it covered. We live very near my club (much nearer than the branded one) and the friendly store is a three minute walk away. Let's not go through every detail but I think I found the right setup to move to a better environment (with a bigger diversity of games).
    The way things look I might be spending a fair amount on The Hobby(tm) and I plan to spend it in the local shop. I'm also not going to order games at big online retailers anymore, that shop can order most things for me. So what if I don't get it overnight? I rather keep a shop alive that has quality toys and games, who (as I found out buying plush toys with my daughter) care and know about what they sell, who don't fill the shelves with only big brands and video games. They deserve my patronage.

    Yesterday I had an epiphany. I asked them if they had Zombie Dice. They did sell it but it wasn't in stock. They guy that does the orders wasn't around, if I could come back in a few days. Instead of going online and order it from our local version of Amazon and get it next day I decided to wait that few days (and another few days for the order to arrive, probably). I'm not one to keep hammering on "everything must be in-person social, boo internet, boo facebook" but here I have the chance for a future chat with a fellow gamer and buy stuff at a store where he works.

    Anyway, I left the store with a bunch of plastic space things, a few pots of paint and a good feeling. I wish I had known this a year ago. Then again, now is just as good a time as any.

    ReplyDelete

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